Process of impregnating wood.



1r. CHATEAU L J. MBRKLBN. PROCESS OP IMPREGNATING WOOD.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 5, 1907.

Patented June 15, 1909.

Zizea 666 12T-2062611.51956 @wh caafmw permittingV oi' injectingl aliuid into porous fway slee ers, and the like and it is an application othis kind which will be described tion.

' be caused to act for too short a time, the imsired to .impregnatothese sleepers com` ited, quantity of antiseptic is injected bybcingprclcrab y heated sul'liciently to Vapo *l JUSTIN CHATEAU AND JULESM ERlLllN, OF PARIS, FRANCE.

PROCESS -OF IMPREGNATING WOOD.

' No. 925,292. Specification of Letters recent. Patented June 15, 1909.

Application filed June 5, 1907. Serial No. 377,436.

To all who/m yit Imay concern.:

Be it known that we, Jrs-'ris' CHATEAU and y JnLEs MERKLEN, bothcitizens oi' the French Republic, residing` at Paris, Department of theSeine, France, have invented' certain new and useful Improvements inProcesses of llnpregnating "."ood, ol' which -the`follo'wing is asp'eci'lieation.

'lhe present invention relates to aprocess bodies of all kinds, and incausing this luid to penetrate throughout the depth of the porousmaterial, while at thesame time coniining the eonsun'iption oi'impregnating material to as sxnall a quantity as desired.

This process is particularly applicable to the injection ol'A antisepticliquids into railbyway of example in the following specifica- Theaccompanying drawing shows, also by Way of example, a diagram of animpregnatin apparatus permitting` the carrying out o the invention. f

The'method of impregnation termed the vacuum and pressure process isknown. It consists in arranging the wood inside a chamber in which.v avacuum is formed, so as to extract the air and water Vapor. When therarefaction is sutficient, ho't' creosote is introduced and compressed.The process thus applied can only give an inadequate or very costlyimpregnation. l If the pressure pregnation will be relativelysuperficial, and will only be complete for a certaindistance from theends of the sleepers. It' it is depletely, the pressure must beprolonged fora considerable period 3 the saturation will be good, butwith the absorption of a very large quantity ol' creosote. i

In accordance with the invention, a limmcans of the vacuum and pressureprocess, and however limited it may be, itsdiffusion in thc material iscaused by the subsequent action of one or more auxiliary distributinglhiids, antiseptic or not, which are them# selves supplied underpressure, as hereinafter ,lhc wood to be impregnated 1s explained.placed in a receptacle l.. ca able f Wlth.-

standing' a high pressure an raised to that;

necessary temperature the wood or material rize the sap or othermoisture lcontained therein. This receptacle 1 is exhausted by placingit in communication by means of a pipe 6 with a pneumatic pipe efr witha chamer represented at 2, in which a vacuum has previously been formed.The creosote or any other principal antiseptic is contained in anothervessel 3, suitably heated and communicating by means of a pipe 7 withthe receptacle 1 containingthe wood. By cans of an ap aratus of anysuitable kind, t e anw tiseptic iquid iseompressed in this recep-v tacle1 to such a degree as to force a suflicient quantity-of the antisepticfluid into the-wood, the impregnation of the latter with the primaryantiseptic fluid being interrupted before a complete saturation of thewoo'd with such liquid so that a quantity of thepriinary anti-'septicluid is absorbed whichis a fractional part only of thequantity.which the Wood isf he operation is then` capable of absorbing.stopped,` and the creosote in excess 1s exltracted from the receptacle 1through a drain Ypipe 10 which by means of a branch pipe S rconducts itto the creosote reservoir 3. It then remains to diffuse the creosotewhich lhas' been absorbed through the material. Tothis end thereceptacle l1 is iilled with an auxiliary fluid which may itselfbe'antiseptic, and which is heated to an appropriate temperature; theprinci al desideratumA as regards the quality of t is iluid is that itshould be as inex ensive as possible, and it may be for examp e water,water vapor, air, or a mixture of air and vapor and so on contained in avessel 4. When this fluid is introduced into the receptacle 1, it is comressed there by' i hesaid lluid, in.

means ofthe pipe 10 and the 'wood treated is withdrawn from it.

It lwill of course be understood that by means of a set of cocks on thedilerent pipes it is possible to effect the operations in an appro-riate manne-r.

above` described and represented; several contain several diierentiiuids for utilizvatipn after the injection of the principal antiseptic,

vessels however, of the same kind serving tok ne vessel for auxiliary4fluids has been.

and which would act either in succession or simultaneously, might 4bemade use of.

The foregoingr description presents the process in aceordancevwith theinvention superimposed on the process termed the vacuum and pressureprocess. This example has been selected bec anse it is the method mostgenerally emplirifedlor the impregnation of railwaj,Y sleepers, but thediilusion action ol auxiliary iiuids whether antiseptic or not might besuperimposed on the application ol' all known processes which do notinsure a distribution of the antiseptic throughout the entire material,for example to the immersion processes or to the following processes:Lebioda, llulsberg et Cie., Valles et Bastien, Giussani, Rutgers etCie., and others. The essential means will always consist in arrestingthe absorption oi' the principal antiseptic at the moment at which apredetermined mean uantity has been injected, then in distributing thel'raction ,absorbed by means of one or more auxiliar)vv iuids. Finally,stated at the commcncen'ient, it is possible, in an absolutely generalmanner apart from the application to-railway sleepers `which has beendescribed (which is also applicable to other wood pieces such telegraphposts, timber for mines, etc., ete.) by means of the method set forth toimpregnate porous materials of all kinds by means of a limited quantityof a principal fluid which is nevertheless distributed throughout theentire mass under the influence ol' auxiliarf,v fluids compressed to anappropriate pi'essure. In this manner it is possible l'or example toproduce the penetration of coloring` matters into porous materials.

le claim as our invention:

The herein described process oi' preserving porous materials,consisting4 in introducing the l'naterial into a closed receptacle, eX-hausting' the air .trom such rece]' tacle and subjecting the material toa prolonged vacuum, introducing a primary antiseptic fluid into thereceptacle and subjecting' such tluid to pressure to lorcc it into thepores olI the material, relieving the pressure upon said antisepticvlluid and withdrawing the unah sorbed portion ol' the fluid l'rom thereceptacle alter the material has absorbed a iractional' quantity ol'such fluid, and then introdueing into the receptacle successively and atintervals auxiliar)v lluids under succes-- sivelv increasing pressuresfor diil'using the fractional quantitj,VT oi' antiseptic 'lluid ab*sorbed by the material throughout the mass of the latter.

In testimony wher-eel' we have hereunto set our hands in presence oi'two subscribingv Witnesses. f

J USTI N Cl IATEA'U. JULES .M ER KLIC N i Witnesses:

EMILE KLOTz,

H. C. CoXE.

